Project Leader:

Prof. Dr. Olaf Bubenzer Department of Geography University of Heidelberg Im Neuenheimer Feld 348 D-69120 Heidelberg
Tel: Fax:	+49 (0)6221-54-4595  +49 (0)6221-54-4997
sfb389e1@gmx.de olaf.bubenzer@geog.uni-heidelberg.de

Researchers:

Dr. Andreas Bolten
Dr. Frank Darius

Students:

Mathias Ritter
Guido Waldhoff
Michael Weischede
Sabine Lutz
Dirk Hecker
Philipp Greif

I. The development of a present-day area-wide small-scale overview of the natural environment using internationally available data. On one hand, the maps will serve as a foundation for an extensive comparison of the different African regions and on the other hand as base maps for the presentation of the results of all sub-projects.

II. The investigation of the holocene land use potential with regard to typical landscape units and timeslices. The special maps will be drawn up in collaboration with the participating projects. For this phase it is necessary to classify the research areas according to structural and ecological features. The main idea is to explore the current and former vegetation cover as plants are the primary producer in the food chain. Botanical data still exists for southwestern Africa (projects B6, B7) but in northeastern Africa it will be necessary to carry out specific new surveys of selected areas to allow an interpretation of the anthracological data. The reconstruction of the archaeological, geomorphological, pedological, and sedimentological conditions will be carried out together with the projects A1, A2, A6, B4, B5 and B7. The problem area "degradation and pastoralist management" will be dealt with the project C1. A model of the environmental changes of the Nile-valley from about 2.600 to 1.800 B.C. will be reconstructed in conjunction with project A5.
The fundamental question arises as to whether the investigated data are representative for the selected areas. This problem will be resolved by relating the surveyed data to the environmental conditions of the surrounding regions (phase I).

III. Together with the other E-projects, the regional and transcontinental comparison of the results will be used to develop hypothesis and models of the desiccation in Africa and the complex interrelation between man and changing environmental conditions.